Fred Van Vleet named Larry Bird Player of the Year in the MVC

Tuesday

Mar 4, 2014 at 2:21 PM

When Fred Van Vleet won the Larry Bird Award on Tuesday, he did something not even Larry Bird did.

The former Auburn great joined Creighton’s Doug McDermott — soon to be the first three-time first-team All-American since Patrick Ewing and Wayman Tisdale — as the only sophomores in history to be named the Missouri Valley Conference player of the year.

“That’s really amazing. I can’t put it into words right now,” Van Vleet said on a teleconference. “Just the history you talked about is mind-blowing. That’s good company to be in. If that’s any indication for the future, I’m excited for what lies ahead.”

Van Vleet was also named first-team all-conference Tuesday and first-team all-defense.

“That was pretty important being acknowledged for that,” Van Vleet said of his defense. “I take a lot of pride in that side of the floor.”

Shocker teammates Cleanthony Early and Ron Baker also made first-team All-MVC, making it the first time in 41 years that one team had three members on the All-MVC team. Van Vleet said his two teammates were happy for him, just as he would have applauded their selection.

“That was the good thing about it, knowing it was a 90-percent chance it was going to be one of us three,” Van Vleet said. “Whoever won it, the other two were going to be happy and cheering.”

Van Vleet shoots 48.5 percent and averages 11.9 points, 5.3 assists and 4.0 rebounds for the No. 2-ranked Shockers (31-0), but coach Gregg Marshall says his best attribute is just being a winner and unifying the team.

“He just puts you at ease as a coach knowing you’ve got him running the program, knowing you’ve got him handling the basketball, making the decisions and being a leader on the floor,” Marshall said. “He enables you to sleep well at night.

“He’s very mature. For senior day, he took one shot. That is the biggest crowd, the best crowd of the season in a season of great crowds, and he goes 1-for-1. It’s all about winning for him. It’s comforting to know he’s not even done with his sophomore season.”

“That’s a great quality we all have as players,” Van Vleet said. “Nobody cares who gets what. That special day, I could have come out and shot a bunch of shots, but I just wanted to win the game.”

With 164 assists on the season, Van Vleet is four away from breaking the Division I record by former NIC-10 players held by Freeport’s Jamal Meeks, who started on Indiana’s 1992 Final Four team.

Van Vleet also has a tie to former West great Ernie Kent. When Kent was fired at Oregon, starting point guard Malcolm Armstead transferred to Wichita State. Van Vleet was Armstead’s backup last year when Wichita State reached the Final Four.

“It was really hard for me coming out of high school and being the guy, having to take a backseat to another guard,” Van Vleet said. “I had to check my ego at the door. When I cam back to school and Malcolm wasn’t here anymore, that’s when I realized how much better I had become learning from him. I wouldn’t be here right now without that year I had with him. He’s a big part of who I am and what I do as a basketball player.”

“We are happy for these accolades and awards, but we still have a lot of work to do,” Van Vleet said. “These awards won’t mean anything if we don’t take care of business and finish out the way we want to finish out.”